Playing as a preferred status player (I had to buy some Coins because there are things in a game like this that I need like a hidden head slot) I know that it's still fun if you approach it as a single player game levelling through the storylines. Ive taken my time with it (2-3 hrs every 2 or 3 days) and really enjoyed the storylines and the progression of my character. It's really a lot of fun and it doesnt feel as grindy if you immerse yourself in the game.

Cartel Coins can be useful for getting little kick-knacks to help improve your play but I levelled my first character to 25 completely free before I needed to add some upgrades. It's also helpful that you can buy items from the Cartel Market on the Galactic Market. Helps fill in extra holes.

I say give it a try at least. It's free so you really dont have anything to lose.

Thank you all for the answers. I'm finishing the upgrade now, gonna give it a try, even though I was pretty determined not to.

If any of you have played WoW's end game content, how would you rate SWTORS compared? It is easier, harder, more fun? - And which expansion can be drawn the most parallels to?
Another thing... Is PvP balanced, and is there something like arena? Or is it all BGs?

Thank you all for the answers. I'm finishing the upgrade now, gonna give it a try, even though I was pretty determined not to.

If any of you have played WoW's end game content, how would you rate SWTORS compared? It is easier, harder, more fun? - And which expansion can be drawn the most parallels to?
Another thing... Is PvP balanced, and is there something like arena? Or is it all BGs?

I dunno about recent WoW, I quit awhile ago, but getting started up isn't very great with endgame content. They give you basically a full set of tionese gear but you'll be immediately descriminated against for using it.

You then have to farm a very slow LFG untill you get BETTER then Columi gear.

After getting Columi/Rakata or higher you can no longer use LFG tool to do anything useful since you can't do anything more then story mode Kraggas or EV. You're on your own to get in groups after that. Meaning you have to be in an active guild or troll gen chat for hours in hopes of getting into an ops group.

Most bosses are skipped in Heroic/Hard Mode Flashponts making it even more annoying to initially gear up.

Also since half of the mobs/bosses are skipped elitests yet again descriminate against you if you don't time/move everything perfectly. Basically do your best to try and follow everyone as close as possible (it's really the only thing that will ever be a challenge as far as HMs go)

I would maybe consider it close to endgame near the final moments of Lich King. Everyone wants to rush through everything and you are hated if you are actually just starting off at 50 (who knew people had to start somewhere right?) but LFG is slower and there are less raids/ops and FPs to do.

Not even remotely. They hand you the gear needed to go into story mode Operations. I mean that literally. They send you a token in the mail that you can turn in for Tionese gear which is the tier below Columi, which drops in story mode Karagga's and Eternity Vault. Once you get in there, the amount of gear that drops off bosses is ridiculous. Most people should be decked out in Columi gear by the end of 2 weeks if they run both of those Ops. The only thing that may take you a while is your weapon. But if you have a modifiable weapon, you just need an extra piece of gear to rip the mods out of and then a barrel or hilt off the GTN. You never even have to set foot into a Flashpoint.......ever.

You can probably find guilds out there that will still run the initial Operations on alt runs or whatever to gear you up. The reason? You can blow through either one on story mode in about a half hour.

Lol, sounds like the end game content is "noob friendly" but in a rediculous way.
So if I'm not mistaken you get the initial gear, you farm new gear, and then you're stuck unless you have a good guild to play with before hand?

Lol, sounds like the end game content is "noob friendly" but in a rediculous way.
So if I'm not mistaken you get the initial gear, you farm new gear, and then you're stuck unless you have a good guild to play with before hand?

Well, you can always get into a guild that can take down story mode, but that means you'll never outgear Black Hole or Rakata gear. You need to be in a better guild to take down Hard Modes (about the equivalent of a normal raid in WoW). But only hard mode Terror From Beyond or Explosive Conflict. Karagga's Palace and Eternity Vault is pretty damn easy even on Nightmare mode. When I still played, I was able to take 2 people who had never even been in either Op, let alone Nightmare mode, and get the timed achievement for the titles on 8 man.

Darn it... What's happening to MMORPGs!??!! Why are they all becoming so casual friendly and "boring"? Seems like WoW is the game to play if you really insist on sticking to an MMORPG and don't want to give up gaming within that genre.

Darn it... What's happening to MMORPGs!??!! Why are they all becoming so casual friendly and "boring"? Seems like WoW is the game to play if you really insist on sticking to an MMORPG and don't want to give up gaming within that genre.

Casual friendly is the bottom half as it draws more people into raids. I know tons of people which never did/ liked raids because there was tons of grinding/ elitism and hours of beating on a mob with little - no success. As soon as you hit Denova/ Asation Hardmode it starts to get fun (of course not if you are already decked out in gear) and I'm not sure if Denova Nightmare 16man has been cleared yet. That Kephess encounter was so far the longest holding out enemy counting the days from patch - actually being killed.

Regarding WoW.... how much of a shitstorm Blizzard got when some lvl 80 peeps killed raidbosses solo? I'd know that for SWTOR... some people would seemingly comit suicide over it... for some days.

Darn it... What's happening to MMORPGs!??!! Why are they all becoming so casual friendly and "boring"? Seems like WoW is the game to play if you really insist on sticking to an MMORPG and don't want to give up gaming within that genre.

are you saying WOW is not casual friendly? its one of the reasons WOW was such a huge success.

F2P is for super casuals, if you are going to play more than once a week you are better off subbing.

---------- Post added 2013-01-16 at 10:35 AM ----------

Originally Posted by notorious98

Well, you can always get into a guild that can take down story mode, but that means you'll never outgear Black Hole or Rakata gear. You need to be in a better guild to take down Hard Modes (about the equivalent of a normal raid in WoW). But only hard mode Terror From Beyond or Explosive Conflict. Karagga's Palace and Eternity Vault is pretty damn easy even on Nightmare mode. When I still played, I was able to take 2 people who had never even been in either Op, let alone Nightmare mode, and get the timed achievement for the titles on 8 man.

EC and TFB were much much harder on SM than EV and KP were on NM. EV and KP were their first OPs and they thought the game was a bit more casual and aimed it at a first time raiders not the experienced WoW raiders which was a mistake. SM and HM should have been for casuals and NM for hardcore raiders. Anyway, they learnt and the last two OPs have been very good.

---------- Post added 2013-01-16 at 10:39 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Cirkeline

Lol, sounds like the end game content is "noob friendly" but in a rediculous way.
So if I'm not mistaken you get the initial gear, you farm new gear, and then you're stuck unless you have a good guild to play with before hand?

Initial gear they give you, Tionese, was pretty bad at launch. It's worse than the gear you get from end bosses in HM FPs. Think of it as a small step up to let people start doing HMs and OPs like the dungeons in WoW that are introduced late in the expansion.

Darn it... What's happening to MMORPGs!??!! Why are they all becoming so casual friendly and "boring"? Seems like WoW is the game to play if you really insist on sticking to an MMORPG and don't want to give up gaming within that genre.

Yeah I'm not understanding you. WoW is successful because from BC on. It became more and more casual which at it's peak in WOTLK at 12 million subscribers it had become very casual friendly. Still standing at about 9 million subs it's the most played MMO in history. Casual is the future of all MMOS as it gets the most sales.

F2P is for super casuals, if you are going to play more than once a week you are better off subbing

For this particular game, that's true.

Originally Posted by Jalek

EC and TFB were much much harder on SM than EV and KP were on NM. EV and KP were their first OPs and they thought the game was a bit more casual and aimed it at a first time raiders not the experienced WoW raiders which was a mistake. SM and HM should have been for casuals and NM for hardcore raiders. Anyway, they learnt and the last two OPs have been very good.

I never experienced SM for TFB, but I did for EC. We cleared it in two nights. I wouldn't call that "much much harder".

Originally Posted by Jalek

Initial gear they give you, Tionese, was pretty bad at launch. It's worse than the gear you get from end bosses in HM FPs. Think of it as a small step up to let people start doing HMs and OPs like the dungeons in WoW that are introduced late in the expansion.

The problem is that you don't need to go into a HM FP at all. SM EV and KP can be cleared, relatively easily, with Tionese gear.

---------- Post added 2013-01-16 at 05:47 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Aevic

Yeah I'm not understanding you. WoW is successful because from BC on. It became more and more casual which at it's peak in WOTLK at 12 million subscribers it had become very casual friendly. Still standing at about 9 million subs it's the most played MMO in history. Casual is the future of all MMOS as it gets the most sales.

Don't forget that WoW only gained, roughly, 1 million subs during WotLK. During the days when things weren't "casual-friendly", WoW was sporting a higher subscriber base than they do currently.

While I agree SM EC and TFB aren't that hard they are still much much harder than EV and KP. Also complaining that you can step into EV and KP SM without doing HM is fine when they are 3 patches old and only give columi gear which is the same as end gear you get from HM FPs.

While I agree SM EC and TFB aren't that hard they are still much much harder than EV and KP. Also complaining that you can step into EV and KP SM without doing HM is fine when they are 3 patches old and only give columi gear which is the same as end gear you get from HM FPs.

Who was complaining? I'm merely stating the truth about the system. Now you get a token for Tionese gear, which is good enough to clear SM EV and KP. And, guess what, you could clear SM EV before patch 1.1 without running HM FPs. In fact, HM FPs were considered to be more difficult than SM Ops, making it an inefficient way to gear up. Especially considering the amount of drops each Op boss had, all of which were better than anything but what the end boss of a HM FP dropped. It was an issue because it made an entire piece of endgame content relatively worthless. But nobody was complaining about it.

As for SM EC and TFB, yes they are much much harder than Story Mode EV or KP, but you said they were much much harder than Nightmare Mode EV or KP and I completely disagree with that. At least for EC. Like I said, I've never run TFB.